Leaders Write Goals

A leader is a writer.

A leader doesn’t always publish what they write, but they do write. The biggest challenge is being someone who can clearly write down information, or ideas. Not only goals, but the vision of what they want. A writer can make plans, but the best ones write them down. The same is true with leaders.

What would be a good goal for a leader?

1) Have a strong mental plan:

Before writing down anything, a blog post, an email, a speech, or a chapter in a book, a person needs to see what they want in a very visual manner. They have to mentally plan it. At this point, it’s helpful to have a pen and paper, although it’s not needed. What is needed is a reflection time where you can ask if the goal is good for everyone, this is most true when change is needed. A leader plans for every possible thing that can happen. once they have a strong visual, they will write it down on paper, and then update it as needed and share it with the team.

After planning it in your head, and seeing if it will work, there is the next step, writing down a list.

2) Goals need a good pros and cons lists:

Write this down. Some of the best writers, and motivational speakers say it. Robin Sharma, well known speaker almost always repeats the phrase “write this down”

It may seem as if it’s common sense to write a list of the pros and the cons of a potential goal. If you want to earn some extra income, but you have a full time job that doesn’t allow for much time outside of work, then the list might be really short. If you want to expand your blog or start your own business, a list of pros and cons will show you where you are at in a visual way.

Why a list? I liken a list to an outline, it only gives you the bare minimum you need to build your writing and you goals. You have to expand, and build the details.

3) Leaders will expand on each point:

A good leader will expand on each point in the pros and cons list, or lists. It’s at this point that a good leader will begin to do a game plan. It’s not like a simple ‘go fish’ game but more like ‘chess’ where the answers need to be written down and re-written.

A good leader, even if they have a small staff or team, needs to know the points and how it will affect another person on the team. This is writing it down, and this is going beyond thinking on your feet. This is a lot like a writer creating a chapter of a book. It needs to be expansive and meant for others to read.

4) Goals can be long or short, but they are a part of the writing life, and that of a leader:

Most writers who have a team behind them have heard they need to have goals. This is a great concept in theory. The problem a writer, who is becoming more a of leader will face is they can be ahead of where the writing actually is.

A short term goal, no matter how you define this time line, is one which should be attainable for all of the team members and also written down for all of them to see it and work with it. A short term goal can be hard to do, or easy to do, but the process of writing it all down is the most important of it all.

A leader is one who will go through a process of writing, and then re-writing to get their points across, they will have the background information because they wrote it down. Not only that, but they are focused on improving and networking to build a stronger community within their team.

A written goal is what we’ve all heard about, but it is something most people, writers and leaders included, don’t do as often as they should. Leaders are part-time writers, but they are also ones who take an idea, and write it down. The best writers can emulate this trait of vision and goals and writing it all down. Part of the reason writers have ‘great ideas’ is they write it down for later recall. This is what leaders, the best ones, do as well.